Saturday, July 19, 2008

Dark Knight is a very fast paced Batman movie and a fitting sequel to Batman Begins. Batman Begins ends with a scene where Gordon hands the Joker card to Batman. Dark Knight is a treat to all the fans who have been waiting since 2005 to watch the Joker's madness onscreen.

The Joker is Batman's worst ever nemesis and Heath Ledger's portrayal is near perfect in this movie. Somehow Jack Nicholson's performance in the 1989 Batman movie seems a bit unnatural after watching Heath Ledger. Heath Ledger as Joker is nihilistic, remorseless and is darkly funny.

The Joker pulls off one surprise after another taking us through a thrill ride. He simply rips everybody's plans and just steals the show. As the Joker himself puts it:

"Do i look like a guy with a plan? Im a dog chasing cars. I wouldn't know what to do with it it if i caught one. I just do things...I hate plans. Yours, theirs, everyone's. Maroni has plans. Gordon has plans. Schemers trying to control their little worlds. I am not a schemer. I show schemers how pathetic their attempts to control things really are."

The Joker symbolizes all the evil madness in the world. Batman will never kill the Joker "out of some misplaced sense of righteousness" and the Joker "enjoys" playing with Batman. They are made for each other in a Superhero-Supervillain sense. The Joker in fact completes the Batman which is what makes him the greatest Supervillain ever.

There are lots of theories as to the origins of the Joker. One is that he fell into a vat of chemicals which gave him the whitened body, red lips and coloured hair. But everytime The Joker tells about his scars, he tells it differently and each tale is chilling the way Heath Ledger tells us.

Joker has some dark funny lines in the movie. The scene where he holds Rachel at the edge of the building, Batman says "Let her go" and the evil Joker smiles and says "Poor choice of words" and just lets her go :)

Heath Ledger has said in an interview that he was asked to read The Killing Joke comic book as a preparation for this role. Click here to read the comic that inspired Ledger, the Method actor to emulate the Joker so flawlessly. Its sad that he wont be around for a sequel.

There are some slick action scenes like the stunning BatPod and scenes where Helicopters and Trucks are toppled with metal wires. Great work by the Nolan brothers on the direction and screenplay. Dark Knight is a great summer blockbuster that rightfully deserves its place on the imdb #1 atleast for sometime. No other movie could have beaten Godfather and Shawshank Redemption to get there.

Sunday, July 13, 2008

This post is a collection of philosophical quotes from the movie Fight Club:

I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let's evolve, and let the chips fall where they may.

Stop trying to control everything and just let go.

You're not your job. You're not how much money you have in the bank. You're not the car you drive. You're not the contents of your wallet. You're not your fucking khakis. We are the all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.

You are not special. You are not a beautiful or unique snowflake. You are the same decaying organic matter as everything else.

The things you own, they end up owning you.

It's only after we've lost everything that we're free to do anything.

You have to consider the possibility that God does not like you. He never wanted you. In all probability, he hates you. This is not the worst thing that can happen. We don't need Him.

Reject the basic assumption of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions!

Self-improvement is masturbation.

Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.

We're the middle children of history, man. No purpose or place. We have no Great War. No Great Depression. Our Great War's a spiritual war…our Great Depression is our lives. We've all been raised on television to believe that one day we'd all be millionaires, and movie gods, and rock stars. But we won't. And we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.

We face an astounding amount of competition for everything in life - to get a good education, to get a good job, to get a good partner, to get a good apartment etc. Sometimes good isnt enough. We want the best or better than what others get. In this quest, sometimes we forget the fact that we are born champions.

Yes, You heard it. We all are born champions and this is not some feel good positive psychobabble at all. During sex, 100 million sperms are released, but only 100,000 enter the uterus, out of which only 1000 reach the oviduct, out of which only 100 reach near the egg, out of which only ONE penetrates the egg. You were the champion that won the F1 race on that day. Congratulations!

There is a moment in the film Knocked Up where Pete(Paul Rudd) and Ben Stone(Seth Rogen) watch Pete's children playing in the park with soap bubbles. Pete isn't quite upbeat about life and says this about his children:

"Oh God, they go apeshit over bubbles. I mean, that’s an incredible thing about a child. What’s so great about bubbles? I wish I liked anything as much as my kids like bubbles. It’s totally sad; their smiling faces point out your inability to enjoy anything."

There comes a point in our adult life when we gradually lose our innocence and the curiosity of a child because of day-to-day stress and depression. And by the time we realise it, the innocence and curiosity are long gone. This post is a reminder to myself to rediscover the childlike innocence and curiosity with which we were born.

"Backward, turn backward, O Time, in your flight, Make me a child again just for to-night!"

Have you ever imagined the possibility of growing younger? I mean you would actually be growing younger with each passing day instead of growing older. We are born into this world as infants, and gradually grow into young boys and girls and then as the years pass by we become men and women and then senility pushes us into old age and we finally die. What if this whole life cycle is backwards? Imagine life if you could actually grow backwards. You no longer have to worry about aging, wrinkles or saving for old age.

And if aging is all backwards, models and actresses no longer have to worry about growing old and losing their beauty. Imagine Monica Bellucci turning from an old woman to a gorgeous lady to a beautiful young girl with the passage of time. Wouldn't it be nice to see your fav star turning younger instead of older and uglier.

There would be no such thing as underage drinking or underage driving. You'll be given all the licenses when you're born and if the archaic laws still exist, your license would be revoked once you celebrate your 82nd birthday and your body is less than 18 years old.

The Curious Case of Benjamin Button is being made into a hollywood movie by David Fincher with Brad Pitt playing the protagonist. David Fincher and Brad Pitt have made some mindblowing movies like Fight Club and Se7en in the past. Check out the teaser trailer of the movie below. Brad Pitt is amazing in his portrayal of Button from old age to young age.

You could have actually grown a few minutes younger after reading this post if all this were possible. Until then post your comments on your imaginations of a backwards life...

This is not a reference to one of those medically proven articles that uses statistics and controlled experiments which prove that 600 people who regularly consumed beer performed better in mensa puzzles than 400 other people who abstained from beer. Well 99% of all statistics are made up including this statistic on statistics.

But, Buffalo theory is actually a different way to look at drinking Beer. It was conceptualized by Cliff in the TV series Cheers. It goes like this:

"Well you see, Norm, it's like this... A herd of buffalo can only move as fast as the slowest buffalo and when the herd is hunted, it is the slowest and weakest ones at the back that are killed first. This natural selection is good for the herd as a whole, because the general speed and health of the whole group keeps improving by the regular killing of the weakest members. In much the same way, the human brain can only operate as fast as the slowest brain cells. Now, as we know, excessive drinking of alcohol kills brain cells. But naturally, it attacks the slowest and weakest brain cells first. In this way, regular consumption of beer eliminates the weaker brain cells, making the brain a faster and more efficient machine. And that, Norm, is why you always feel smarter after a few beers."

Amazing theory Cliff... Drink beer and Get smart. Kill all those weaker and slower brain cells every weekend...

Well, i was thinking of a pseudonym to blog with and i thought of a movie character that best represents me or the me i want to be. I could not pin it down on one, so i came up with this collective pseudonym of my fav characters from the movies Taxi Driver, Matrix and Fight Club - Travis Bickle, Neo and Tyler Durden.